Costa and Josh meet up to visit a very special community farm project in vibrant North Fremantle on Whadjuk Noongar Boodja. Subscribe đ http://ab.co/GA-subscribe
The farm is constructed atop an old bowling club and is located between Port Beach and the Swan River. This site was formerly a Chinese market garden in the 1920âs and has been running as a farm since 2016, though it has evolved according to the needs of the local community.
Amy Warne is the farm manager and is a very skilled farmer and community operator who has catapulted the current iteration of the farm into the successful model that it operates at today. The âsocial farmâ model is different to the average community garden in that Amy manages all of the garden beds, aiming to maximise production to feed as many people as possible out of the small space. Locals who pay to be members of the social farm are invited to come into the space and pick produce whenever they like. There are 200 full members and heaps more on the waitlist, indicating the popularity of this model. Others can opt to volunteer on the farm with Amy to get their own taste of the vegies. Costa meets some of these special gardenersâHelen, Penny, and Johnâto learn about how spending time working at the farm help connect them to their community and food.
Josh joins in the fun at the farm to meet up with Renée Gardiner, who was the brainchild behind converting this unused public space into a productive patch. Her original vision for the project was to help people struggling with mental health to connect to nature and others in the community. Though the focus and leadership of the space has changed to more of market garden, Renée is confident that positive mental health impacts are an ancillary benefit that the farm still provides.
Sophie is another volunteer who shows Costa and Josh around the flower and food forest plantings around the perimeter of the garden. She reflects on how these colourful plantings work to attract kids and visitors from the street, who she delights in teaching to engage with plants and herbs on the farm.
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13 Comments
Councils have so much unused growing space! People doing community service should be put to work making beautiful gardens instead of mowing grass. A lawn is a place where neither life or death is allowed to happen. Get them used to nurturing life and it might just reduce recidivism.
You lost my interest in this video when u started talking about the history of the place instead of gardening
Colonisation was the best thing that ever happen to the word
There should be more of these around.
Wow what an incredible place! Thanks for showcasing it! It's funny to think it started off as a chinese market garden, turned in a bowling club, only then to be turned back into a garden. Just goes to show how much more important a market garden is to a community!
Looks good. I reckon the broad fork could be retired though! đ
So good seeing Josh and Costa together! I wish I could like this twice
That is just amazing. what a wonderful thing they have there. well done to everyone involved with it. â€
These days it seems like every piece of content from the ABC begins with a bespectacled lass mispronouncing an aboriginal place name
People and communities all over the world are turning to these community gardens , growing what they can at home and food forests are growing in huge numbers and it is the way of the future đđȘŽđ±đŽđłđȘŽ
This is awesome!
I wonder what the member âpickingâ rules are to balance it out so itâs fair.
Teaching kids to stop and smell the flowers is just magic
What a beautiful introduction to the majesty of nature
Imagine if local councils prioritised giving space to community gardens rather than more and more tiny, concrete box 'apartments' that seem to be springing up everywhere. It could be so transformative.